THE LAST STAND
In what was unquestionably one of the lowest of the low points in their downward trajectory, The Beatles had recorded their warts’n’all Let It Be documentary and its musical soundtrack during January 1969. The cuddly mop-tops had been disintegrating since the White Album sessions in 1968, and the experience of making Let It Be had been agonising for all concerned. Tony Bramwell, their roadie from the Liverpool days and later an Apple director, recalls: “Things started going wrong at the time of the White Album. Everything changed then. It became that Paul was doing lots and the others weren’t doing much more than being session men.”
By the time of the Let It Be sessions, Lennon’s heroin addiction was at its worst, and the others simply could not cope with it. “We were disappointed that he was getting into heroin because we didn’t really know how we could help him,” McCartney explained to Barry Miles in his book Many Years From Now. “We just hoped it wouldn’t go too far.”
Another spanner was thrown into the works on January 28, when John and Yoko met with American music business mogul Allen Klein in London’s Dorchester Hotel, because Lennon felt that The Beatles were being financially shafted by NEMS Enterprises, their late manager Brian Epstein’s management company.
“Everything changed then [at the time of the White Album]. It became that Paul was doing lots and the others weren’t doing much more than being session men.”
Tony Bramwell, Apple director
“Oh! Darling was a great one of Paul’s that he didn’t sing too well. I always thought I could have done it better.”
John Lennon
“Brian Epstein was a beautiful guy, and an intuitive theatrical guy, and he knew we had something and he presented us well,” reckoned Lennon, “but he got lousy business advice. He was taken advantage of. We all were.”
Lennon therefore wanted Klein to take over management of The Beatles and sort out their chaotically tangled financial affairs. As Tony Bramwell puts it: “There were huge expenses bills – catering, drinks, free cars and houses for people. Every Beatle had his own personal assistant, all of them overpaid.”
Immediately impressed by Klein, Lennon decided to make him his personal adviser.